Hi Everyone!
Hi Everyone! I am new to Blender and Bonsai BIM! So glad to finally be free of AutoDesk. We are a Design/Build Off-site Builder of highly resilient and highly energy efficient buildings. We are axiously waiting for the merger of Open USD and Open BIM running on top of Nvidia Omniverse! Now with AI in play Linux will finally come into its own ! We are building a 25 PFLOPS 5 node Linux Cluster right now using Nvidia NGX A100 640 GB nodes and a 14 GB (usable ) Ceph redundant and shared Storage and 2. Nvidia Quantum QM8700 network switches this is being configured as A Blender/Bonsai BIM /AI /Blender/Flamenco workstation/Rendering farm. With AI
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Open USD and Open BIM are merging! Liaison agreement signed (2024), joint working group active.
• NVIDIA Omniverse, Autodesk, and Epic Games already ship USD-based IFC loaders with semantic preservation. When will we see Bonsai BIM and Blender step up to the plate?
• AOUSD core spec finalizes end-2025; the AEC schema is one of the highest-priority extensions.
• Industry consensus (from buildingSMART summits and AOUSD meetings): “USD with IFC inside” is the future, not a replacement of IFC.
In short: The merged standard already has a name — OpenUSD with official IFC/AEC schemas — and it’s being built right now by the two organizations together. It gives you IFC’s trusted, regulated, semantic richness inside USD’s scalable, real-time, collaborative engine. No need to invent a third format; just finish the integration that’s already 60–70% done.
This seems like an unnecessarily antagonistic way to introduce yourself to a new community. 🤔
As I understand key contributers of IfcOpenShell and Bonsai are already involved in the ongoing buildingSMART IFC 5 process. i.e. it is still in alpha. As an open source project with limited volunteers and resources, it is likely a bad idea to spend them chasing a still moving target.
Couldn't agree more. On top of that there still so many aspects untouched in IfcOpenShell (and the schema it self) that can be utilized and become functional use cases.
I am a huge fan of Open USD.
Suffering from lossy collaboration in 3D and CAD for many years. DXF, DWG, 3DS, FBX (one of the better ones), .... some don't even necessarily need Units defined !? USD seems to be much more capable and could get something for 3D world like IFC for AEC. It could finally get a standard, as it is open and is widely supported by big players (Nvidia, Apple, ...)
But I do not necessarily mix or combine USD for 3D with IFC for AEC.
And so far, from my proprietary App's experience, 3D or CAD, USD support is still so rudimentary (if implemented at all) like it is unfortunately with IFC. And for supporting IFC, CAD Apps basically had 2 decades or so until we can now use it a bit better than a DWG collaboration but it is still lossy and tedious. How long will a proper USD implementation need ?
I think open USD in itself is great and has much potential, but organizations mentioning USD and IFC in one sentence may have other ambitions, from taking control over IFC or even replacing IFC by USD, other than supporting real collaboration and supporting open standards.
If IFC with some USD offers real benefits for AEC or can bring BIM and 3D together, I am all in. I'm really excited to watch where IFC5 is heading to.
I see Open USD and open BIM as complimentary I see Blender has already incorporated a USD Compatible Rendering engine so there is life ah stirring in this direction. Of course since Blender is being used in the film and hi end CGI Industry it is no surprise that Pixar the inventor of USD has probably helped add a USD compatible rendering engine to Blender.
if interested watch this:
it tells a story that might be similar to IFC/EXPRESS (Often confused with STEP serialization)
the NoSQL 'movement' promoted a different approach to database schemas
..until reality entered the room and, as narrated in the video, SQL adapted and evolved to the point that its standalone version SQLite is the default database for mobiles, while other versions (PostgreSQL, MySQL.. etc) are dominating with their relational database model everywhere.
Why ? you ask, because SQL is adaptive and practical, and other features you can find in the video.
@KyOffSiteICFBuilder you write in your first post (looks more an advert than other but it doesn't matter)
and in the second
do you notice anything?
A little rant (no AI, I swear)
To the best of my understanding of IFC5, in its current form, it proposes to preserve a core of the current schema ontology and leave specialistic parts to 'modules' detached from ISO (at least in the way IFC4+) is now , but hopefully to be managed by buildingSMART.
Likely scenario? a plethora of IFC dialects.
This to me is a giant elephant in the room: USD does not have ontology, it does not define how entitities should relate, it helps (I think) handling of geometries for optimized visual representations. Good for videogames I guess, certainly not for data management in a real AEC environment outside of the presentation room.
Please read about the work done to stream IFC models thanks to RockDB support in the latest release of Bonsai for instance, great feature in my opinion.
More serious issues to address if you ask me?: overly bloated models, misuse of types (or no use at all), unnecessary details, lack of federating models to handle different disciplines separately, blind use of proper IFC classes/predefined type, ignoring Pset already available..
in one word: optimization or lack therof ;)
For some reason people forget or neglect what the "I" in BIM stands for..
Peace
My point is Nvidia and AutoDesk are already moving to preserve the IFC schema on top of open USD Understanding what USD is and what it does is an important first step . it is not an attempt to dilute the IFC standard if it was the guys at BuildingSmart would have never entertained the notion of collaborating with USD . This is a standard it can be used by anyone. The fact that AutoDesk wants to use it does not change the open source nature of Bonsai BIM or Blender . And it does not change BuildingSmart’s oversight and management of the Open BIM IFC Schema. You are correct that USD seeks to optimize and speed up the graphics side of the fence where Open BIM is more concerned with standardizing the Data Both are necessary and that is why both Standards see the value in collaborating! I think it will be a great improvement . It is important that each group remain focused on their core standard and not allow it to become bloated and defeat the purpose of their standard.